Well, that's right at the average for students who are coming out with debt. And for many, it does become a millstone, and it's a part of the challenge of getting life on track.

Do you see this as a family sustaining career, a strong financial platform, if you will, for raising your child?

I am convinced that it can be an extraordinarily important innovative State.

I believe that Emerald Cities is also involved in assisting Hacienda Community Development Corporation in developing more energy conservation strategies for their work.

Thank you, Senator Merkley, for your leadership on clean energy and economic development in Congress.

Well, there is nothing like a living wage job as a foundation for a family, so that is terrific.

And, Berenice, you said in your testimony that the average savings, I believe, were 34 percent.

Creating good-paying jobs is one of the best ways to restore and strengthen the middle class.

I think if you can really push and instill the triple bottom line of sustainability, the social, environmental, and economic impact, and every time you look at a project, you ask what social impact it's had, I think people will start to…

But, really, what we're talking about here is how good environmental policy becomes very good economic policy as well.

If my children were very young, I'd be thinking about moving to Vernonia.

I appreciate your comments, and I also think it's very cool that the solar panels are going up.

Two of those bills that encapture this concept are Senator Merkley's.

It was not that many years ago that LEED Platinum was just a twinkle in our eyes, and now we hear about building after building achieving that status.

The thing that I really like about that is that folks see the energy savings on their bill, and if their loan is on there as well, they realize they were able to upgrade their home, often practically paying for it with energy savings…

I'm going to be introducing a bill this coming month that focuses on energy savings in the manufacturing process.

So that term, workforce mapping, was relatively--well, it was new to me, not relatively new. It was new.

I just want to do a little advertisement for Vernonia, because I thought when I saw the school and what it brought to the community--and you mentioned all the common rooms and the focus on the energy.

I ask unanimous consent that Allan Van Vliet be given floor privileges for the balance of the day. He is an intern in my office. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I applaud the work that has been done. This is certainly extremely close, was extremely close to Frank's heart.

I find it fascinating that we have a variety of regulatory powers, but essentially despite those powers dispersed among a number of different agencies, we have a picture of companies, big banks, that have enormous assets being able to buy…

Despite the powers invested in the Fed and the SEC and the CFTC, it seems like there is a huge amount of conflict of interest and a huge amount of market manipulation, and it does not seem like much action.

on behalf of so many of my colleagues, I want to thank the security forces at the Capitol for the incredible job they do in protecting these rooms where debates and democracy take place. The debate that we are engaged in right now is about…

in approximately 8 minutes from now we are going to have a moment of silence for Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson in recognition of the sacrifice they made in defending the Capitol against an armed intruder. I want to say…

I thought I would make a couple of comments regarding the activities of this Chamber a few minutes ago. We had 71 votes in favor of closing debate on the nomination of Richard Cordray to be Director of the Consumer Financial Protection…